The biggest mortgage lenders and the national industry trade groups have yet to formally submit comments to the CFPB regarding the bureau’s proposal that would close the so-called black hole associated with the agency’s integrated disclosure rule. But smaller players aren’t waiting around for the big dogs to weigh in and are expressing their support for the agency’s proposed solution. Monica Montgomery, head of mortgage compliance for Dubuque Bank & Trust, said she fully supports removing the four-business-day limit for providing closing disclosures for purposes of resetting tolerances and determining if an estimated closing cost was disclosed in good faith. “There are many circumstances where a closing is delayed beyond the control of the creditor after a CD had been ...

A complaint filed in late 2015 in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in an attempt to initiate a class-action case against PHH Corp. and Realogy Holdings Corp. and some of their subsidiaries and affiliates has been brought to an end, after the defendants agreed to pay $17 million to resolve the dispute. PHH, Realogy and the other industry participants were accused of violating Section 8(a) of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act by allegedly “paying and receiving kickbacks, referral fees, or other things of value in connection with the referral of title insurance and other settlement services to Title Resource Group and its affiliates.” They also were accused of running PHH Home Loans as an improper ...

Ocwen Financial Corp. and Ocwen Loan Servicing recently agreed to pay a $1 million fine to resolve an issue of force-placed insurance (FPI) under the national mortgage settlement that was reached in 2014.At issue was the company’s performance as loan servicer as measured against one particular metric, metric 29, the purpose of which is to test whether Ocwen complied with the servicing standards regarding the timeliness of terminating FPI and refunding premiums to affected borrowers. Under the settlement, Ocwen must terminate FPI within 15 days of obtaining proof that a borrower has an existing insurance policy. As it turned out, Ocwen exceeded the mandated error threshold of 5 percent for Metric 29 during the first quarter of 2017, according ...

The CFPB suffered another legal blow recently when a federal district court judge in Atlanta granted defendants’ requests for sanctions against the bureau stemming from its behavior related to the defendants’ depositions of agency witnesses. The action stems from an enforcement action the CFPB brought in April 2015 against a number of individuals and entities in connection with what the bureau alleged was a massive debt-collection scheme. The issue prompting the judge’s crackdown was the CFPB's reluctance and apparent refusal to be deposed by some of the defendants. First, it objected to such depositions. Then when more defendants filed similar notices, the bureau responded with motions for protective orders. Then when depositions finally occurred, a CFPB witness used “memory aids” ...

Last week, the CFPB brought an enforcement action against Zero Parallel, an online lead aggregator based in Glendale, CA, for allegedly steering consumers toward lenders who offered illegal or unlicensed loans that were void in the consumer’s state. According to the bureau, consumers who applied for loans through Zero Parallel’s network had no control over which lenders received their applications. “Zero Parallel regularly sold leads for consumers located in states where the resulting loan was void,” said the consumer regulator. The CFPB ordered Zero Parallel to end its alleged illegal conduct and pay a $100,000 penalty. Also, under the terms of the consent order, Zero Parallel is required to undertake reasonable efforts to ensure that loan applications it sells do ...

State Regulators Start Work on a Next-Generation Technology Platform. The Conference of State Bank Supervisors has initiated what it characterizes as a major redesign of the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS), which is the core technology platform state bank regulators utilize. According to the CSBS, the redesign will enable the regulators to transform the licensing and supervision of non-bank financial institutions, including financial technology companies, or so-called fintechs. “Technology and data are powerful tools that can create sweeping benefits throughout the financial regulatory system,” said Louisiana Office of Financial Institutions Commissioner John Ducrest. “And that vision drives our efforts with the next-generation NMLS. We are committed to nothing less than modernized state regulation for a modernized financial services industry.” The ...

The U.S. Attorney for the District of Texas indicted the former CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas, along with two other former bank employees, for fraud. They were accused of creating fake travel reimbursement requests for lavish trips and embezzlement schemes that began back in 2008. Terrence Smith, at the helm of the bank from 2000 to 2013, and Nancy Parker, chief information officer around the same time, were charged with six counts of making false statements, according to the Department of Justice. And Michael Sims, chief financial officer from 2005 to 2014, was charged with three counts of making false statements.

There is good news for GSE lenders and servicers, as a recent court ruling found that Nevada’s super-priority lien law cannot be used to foreclose on government-owned mortgages. In Berezovsky v. Moniz, the court ruled that the Federal Foreclosure Bar, part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, preempted state law and banned a homeowners association from being able to eliminate a GSE’s interest and foreclose on a property. The court rejected arguments that the Federal Foreclosure Bar did not apply in the Nevada HOA context. Attorneys with Bradley Arant Boult Cummings said, “The Berezovsky decision represents a resounding win for lenders and servicers of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae loans.”

A former employee of Standard & Poor’s Rating Services beat fraud charges alleging she loosened S&P’s rating methodology for commercial MBS to generate business for her employer. However, she was found liable of the lesser charge of negligence for failing to disclose the change. In his initial Aug. 29 decision, Administrative Law Judge James Grimes of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s administrative court said that while Barbara Duka did change the firm’s rating methodology for CMBS, he found no evidence that she intended to manipulate, deceive or defraud investors. Rather, Duka, manager of S&P’s CMBS rating group, did...

PHH Corp. and Realogy Holdings Corp. and some of their subsidiaries and affiliates recently agreed to a $17 million settlement to bring to an end a putative class-action lawsuit over allegedly deceptive and collusive practices in violation of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. At issue were allegations of arranging kickbacks for unlawful referrals of title services. The plaintiffs in the case alleged...